Denver cop hired despite prior DUI conviction

Officer charged in Boulder in '96

A Denver police officer charged last week with drunken driving was hired despite a prior DUI conviction because there was no rule against his employment at that time.

But in 2000, just a year after Jessie Anthony Espinoza II became a patrolman, the city's Civil Service Commission set rules disqualifying police candidates with DUI convictions in the previous three years. The commission extended that standard again in 2011 to bar those with such convictions in the previous five years. Court records show Espinoza, 39, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving while ability-impaired in Boulder in 1996. He joined the force in 1999, when the decision of whether to hire an applicant with such a misdemeanor conviction was made on a case-by-case basis.

The change was one of several line-in-the-sand standards for hiring implemented in 2000, when "it was determined that there was not a level of consistency in how people were being hired," said Earl E. Peterson, the commission's executive director. "I'm sure some of the police officers in the department wouldn't be on today if they were subjected to those standards."

Police said Espinoza, who was off-duty, caused a crash on Interstate 25 near 15th Street last Sunday night, sideswiping a sport utility vehicle, which swerved into a concrete barrier and rolled onto its roof. Three people inside the SUV were unharmed.

A probable-cause statement released Thursday shows Espinoza was charged with two counts of drunken driving and careless driving after tests showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.

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249 -- more than three times the legal limit. The arresting officer noted his speech was slurred, he was swaying, his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, and his eyes were bloodshot and watery, the statement says.

Espinoza, who patrolled out of the city's District 4 station, did not return calls seeking comment Thursday. He remains on the job, but not on the streets, while the incident is investigated both internally and criminally, a department spokesman said.

Denver police candidates are also immediately disqualified if they have more than one drunken-driving conviction in their lifetime, according to the commission's latest guidelines. Peterson said the standards have had a positive effect.

"It's not a black-and-white line," police department spokesman Steve Davis said. Officials consider the offense, when it happened and whether there are patterns, he said, but a recruit with an unblemished past is more likely to get the job in any case.

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